Friday, October 26, 2012

National Seminar on Transformation in Villages: Implications and OutcomesDecember 6-7, 2012Venue: Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur

The shift in development strategy from the early 1990s has impacted on different sectors in varying degrees. It is widely reported that rural India has witnessed changes in every walk of economic life and the neoliberal package has left a deep mark on socio-economic profile of villages. Farmers of different categories and other small producers in the village also have experienced transformation on an unprecedented scale in the post-independent era. Important changes in the commodity production sector are manifested in cropping pattern, cattle rearing, land, labour and credit (informal) markets. While such changes are considered to be an expected outcome of the policy shift, some of the policy induced transformations in villages (environment, water, and common property resources) remain not so explicit or partly hidden. The perceptible changes and transformations in villages have not been uniform across social and economic groupings within villages. To put it differently, there has been a class and caste bias in the delivery of positives and negatives of the shift in the policy paradigm.

Although macro and micro level studies, to a certain extent, do inform broadly the changes in rural India, findings so far have been inadequate to bring into focus inter-intra village differences. Case studies supply information on prominent sample, but does not sufficiently reveal manifold dimensions of the impact on diverse social and economic groupings. It assumes importance how the conclusions drawn out of macro and micro level studies differ within villages, how the economic, political and social life in villages have changed over the last two decades of economic reforms and its induced changes on production, distribution, consumption and exchange relations in the village. However, the emphasis on villages does not overlook the fact that village is a part of the multi-scaled structure and integral part of local, regional, national and international socio-economic order. In other words, village is not a self contained production unit and, therefore, problems at the village level can scarcely be resolved at the village level.

The primary objective of the two-day seminar is to capture the transformations (through field observations) in political, economic and social life of villages during the last two decades. Also, highlight possible outcomes and implications of the observed transformations in the villages.

Village studies (field visit based) research papers are invited on the following themes:

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Refresher Course cum Research Training Programme in EconomicsTheme: Innovation and Development

4-24 January 2013

Organised by Centre for Development Studies, Trivnadrum; National Research Programme on Plantation Development (NRPPD), Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India in collaboration with Rubber Board and Indialics (India chapter of Globelics)

Applications are invited for a Refresher Course cum Research Training Programme in Economics with the above-mentioned theme. This 21-day course is scheduled to commence on 4 January 2013 and is intended to train college/university teachers and researchers interested in science, technology and innovation related issues. Prospective applicants are requested to send in their applications in the PRESCRIBED FORMAT to Prof K J Joseph/Mr A R Aji Kumar (0471 2774256, 2774200) Centre for Development Studies, Ulloor, Trivnadrum Kerala India 695011 as to reach by 20 November 2012. E mail submissions could be made at nrppd@cds.ac.in. TA and DA permissible to the selected participants will be as per the UGC rule.

BackgroundIndian government has declared 2010-2020 as the decade of Innovation. Following this declaration, last year (2011) Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in collaboration with NInC organized its flagship innovation event "Decade of Innovation: India @ Year 1". This year (2012) the second edition of the Innovation event "Decade of Innovation: India @ Year 2" will be organized by Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) [A section 25 company promoted jointly by CII and Technology Development Board (TDB) of Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India] in partnership with NInC and CII on 30-31 October 2012 at Hotel The Lalit, New Delhi.ObjectiveThe main objective of the event is to provide a platform to all the major stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem in the country and abroad to share their experiences in innovation and showcase their recent innovations. This year along with Innovation exhibition the event would include case studies of successful innovations from industry, government, grassroots innovators and entrepreneurs. The issues related to National Innovation System and Innovation Funding (Billion plus fund of NInC) will also be discussed in great detail. The event would attract participation from policy makers, industry, academia, institutions, entrepreneurs, VC's, innovators, incubators and many others. Distinguished delegates from foreign countries are also expected to joint the event.

Friday, October 12, 2012

ICSSR invites proposals for Senior Fellowship and Post Doctoral Fellowship for the year 2012-13. The research proposals may belong to anyone of the social science disciplines or may be interdisciplinary in nature. The recognized disciplines are: (i) Sociology and Social Anthropology; (ii) Political Science/Pub. Admn. and allied subjects; (iii) Economics and allied subjects; (iv) International Studies; (v) Social Geography and Population Studies; (vi) Commerce and Management; (vii) Social Psychology and allied subjects; (viii) Education and allied subjects; (ix) Social Linguistics/Socio-Cultural and allied subjects; (x) Law, International Law and allied subjects; (xi) National Security & Strategic Studies; (xii) Any other (specify). Within the framework of social sciences, an effort is made to promote interdisciplinary studies. In regard to other major disciplines such as natural science, medical science, agriculture science, etc., areas of interface between these disciplines and the social sciences are also covered under the Fellowships scheme.

The Chevening Rolls-Royce Science and Innovation Leadership Programme is a tailor-made programme for high-flying mid-career Indian professionals working in the fields of science, innovation, and related public administration. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Rolls-Royce present this remarkable fully funded eleven week opportunity at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford that will enable scholars from India to explore innovation and science policy from an academic, practical and personal perspective. Each scholarship covers the following: Full Programme fees; Living expenses for the duration of the scholarship for a maximum period of 11 weeks; Return airfare from India to UK; UK Visa

Science & Innovation Leadership Programme

The Programme offers an intense all-expenses paid 11-week course at the prestigious Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Its wide range of modules will include lectures, workshops, visits and interactions with high profile companies and scientists and will bridge pure research and business/scientific entrepreneurship, practical processes of innovation, commercialisation of research and technology transfer. The course is aimed at some of India's brightest scientists, business people and public servants. The ideal candidate should be a mid-career government, science, or media professional with leadership potential and experience in any of the following or similar disciplines: research, technology, manufacturing, business development, or business and public administration. Programme Duration: 11 weeks from 10 April – 20 June 2013

Training Programme on Research Methodology & Project Formulation for Research Scholars & Teachers7-19 January 2013 Venue: Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi

Objective of the courseThe Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID), New Delhi is organizing a two-week Training Programme on Research Methodology & Project Formulation during 7th January — 19th January 2013. The objective of the course is to expose the participating young Ph.D scholars and lecturers to the recent developments in the Indian economy and to familiarise them with techniques and methods used in contemporary research on the subject. The course is a multi-disciplinary one that seeks to: i) introduce the participants to conceptual issues relating to their research interests/topics and emerging areas for research; ii) improve their skills and ability to undertake research on those issues with appropriate data and statistical tools; and iii) develop research methodologies using advanced estimation techniques. Target Group and Selection ProcessYoung researchers/teachers in academic institutions, colleges and university departments – who are primarily from social science disciplines and who are interested in pursuing research form the target group of this programme. A batch consisting of 25 participants will be selected based on merit of the scholar. A nominal fee would be charged from the selected participants: @ Rs. 800/- for lecturer or equivalent; @ 400/- for scholars getting fellowship, @ 200/- for those without any fellowship or financial support and no fees for SC/ST scholars. The selected scholars will be reimbursed railway fare equivalent to 2nd sleeper class travel (to and fro) from the place of study/work. For outstation participants there is a provision for boarding and lodging in Delhi for the duration of the programme.

Those desirous of participating in the programme may kindly send their brief CV along with a write-up of around 1,000 words on their area of interest so as to reach the Programme Coordinator, preferably through e-mail at <trainprog@isid.org.in>, on or before November 25, 2012. Further details and programme updates are regularly posted at <http://isid.org.in/trainprog.html>.

SponsorshipThe programme is co-sponsored by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Northern Regional Centre, New Delhi.

Friday, October 5, 2012

IMTFI's Call for Proposals for Research 2013-2014

The Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion at the University of California, Irvine is soliciting proposals for original scholarly research on mobile money services and platforms, the harnessing of new and existing social and technological infrastructures to promote savings and other forms of value storage and the facilitation of payments at scale for poor people in the developing world. How is mobile money, as a hardware and software architecture, serving as a foundation for new services and functions? Or, how does it have the potential to do so?

For this call, IMTFI is most keenly interested in the following broad topics:

cash and cashlessness

mobile money as a distribution channel for other services, and other product distribution channels as a gateway or opportunity space for mobile money

mobile technologies for payments (at the point of sale and/or remotely)

data, privacy and the new information ecosystem being developed around mobile money

tradeoffs between store of value and medium of exchange capability

regulatory and policy innovations for mobile money

interoperability

the connection between mobile money and other infrastructures and systems (government and private entities, utilities and networked distribution channels, etc.)

gender, development and mobile finances

market failures in electronic or mobile payments, the misuses of mobile services (e.g. in ways that disrupt rather than improve people's lives, from fraud to use for frivolous or destructive purposes)

Eligibility: This call for proposals is open to all researchers who work in the developing world. Previous recipients are welcome to apply but new applicants will receive priority.For this call, proposals to design or implement a service or product are ineligible. We will consider research proposals only.

Deadline for submission: November 26, 2012. Decisions will be announced by early March 2013.